For it is not you who will be speaking–it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. –Matthew 10:20
In Old Testament times, God spoke to select individuals, often in an audible voice. He spoke with Adam and Eve in the garden. He spoke to Moses from a burning bush and told Noah to build an ark. He spoke to them and through them to deliver His truths to His people. God also spoke through the prophets to warn people to turn away from their life of sin and return to Him. But how does he speak to us today? Often it’s through scripture; a certain scripture that we have read many times before “jumps out” at us in a way that gets our attention. Many people feel God’s presence and feel like He’s speaking to them through nature or music. Sometimes God speaks to us through other believers, using them to reveal His truth to us. Such was the case with Sally.
Sally and her husband had come to a struggling church to help revitalize it and help it grow. Over a period of about two to three years, they had held fundraisers to improve the church and hire a full time minister. The church began growing and soon began to flourish. However, as it grew, the church began experiencing growing pains. The women’s guild suffered the most. Sally was the president of the women’s guild, and she noticed that the more the church grew, the more discord there was among the women. There was a lot of competition among them; many thought their ideas were better than those of others, and there was a lot of backbiting and arguing about unimportant things. They had forgotten that their purpose was to further the Kingdom of God. Things had gotten out of hand. Sally had had it. She was ready to resign.
She called a meeting to be held after church one Sunday, knowing more women would attend because of the timing. Standing before the group, Sally began to speak, intending to give her resignation to the group. But that’s not what came out of her mouth. The Holy Spirit spoke through her, reminding the group of their vision, to do everything to the glory of God. To this day, Sally doesn’t remember what she said. All she remembers is that as she spoke, a hush came over the room. People were intently listening to what she said. At the end of the meeting, several came to her and told her that they heard what she said and realized they were a part of the problem. Sally says that the resignation that she intended to deliver never happened. Since then, the church has continued to grow. When Sally left the church to move to another city, she had been president of the women’s guild for twenty years. The Holy Spirit had spoken the truth that those women needed to hear through Sally so that God would be glorified.
Through the centuries, God has spoken through individuals. In the early days of Christianity, God spoke through His Son Jesus Christ, as illustrated in the New Testament. He taught God’s law of love through what is commonly known as The Great Commandment:
Jesus Replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” –Matthew 22: 37-40
Through His sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus also taught, and teaches us today, how to live a life that is dedicated to God and is pleasing to Him. He teaches about a life that is free from hypocrisy…a life that is full of wisdom, discernment, love and grace. Jesus also teaches us through parables such as the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15.
Just as God spoke through Jesus then, He continues to speak to us through His Word today…and often through other people in our lives, just as He did through Sally. Listen Carefully. God could be speaking to you through someone in your life. In fact, if you listen for His whispers, He could speak through you. He could use you to help further His Kingdom. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Embedded in the larger story of redemption is a principle we must not miss: God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things in the lives of others. –Paul David Tripp
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God Speaks 